


you are the music while the music lasts

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: my tiny ass fandom fest [11]
Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Divorced parents, F/M, Jewish Character, POV Jade, Rags (2012) is a fake musical in this fic, all of my favorite cliche high school tropes smashed together, also hey i love Rags far too much, both Robbie and Jade have divorced parents and this is IMPORTANT, but VERY IMPORTANT TO ME, getting drunk together AU, i might have been processing just a couple of small things, jade west and robbie shapiro are bicons FIGHT ME, once again my favorite straight dynamic wins, starring in a play together AU, supportive boy x badass girl is the win for me, well only kinda important to the story, working together in a cafe AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-03 21:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20459984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Robbie turns to look at Jade. “Beck doesn’t deserve you, you know,” Robbie says, earnestness in his eyes. “I wasn’t joking- he’s an utter dickwad for what he did to you. Dumping you like that, for such a stupid reason. You're great. You work hard, and you have a pretty voice, and you've got a passion no one else I know has."The words are a balm just as much as the alcohol is.Though Robbie's scared of most things in the world- kindergarteners, non-Jewish holidays, Northridge girls, turnips, giant cupcakes, being separated from his puppet- he’s never been afraid of her. On the contrary, despite the fact that she’s constantly yelling at Robbie, he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s always been supportive, if a bit anxiety-ridden due to his general demeanor. And very few people are that. Very few people can be relied on to the extent that Robbie is, that he's so willing to help and support her that he showed up here at her house at midnight, got drunk with her, and keeps complimenting her- and Jade's not entirely sure why, on that last one.She doesn't say thanks. She never does. But in this moment, she almost wants to, because no one's ever been this nice to her. No one's ever cared this much.





	you are the music while the music lasts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [halfempty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfempty/gifts).
  * Inspired by [use somebody](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2522216) by [halfempty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfempty/pseuds/halfempty). 

> Title is from T.S. Eliot.
> 
> So, I've been wanting write something for Victorious for a very long time now (specifically for my rarepair Robbie/Jade), and I finally got the idea a few days ago, so here it is! Hope you all like it!
> 
> Also, I like canon! Beck, I promise, but it *is* kind of easy to exaggerate a couple of his qualities just a little to get the version of him in this story, which I feel could fit into canon pretty okay, so, yeah. I'm not trying to bash him, I promise. Just playing in the Victorious sandbox.
> 
> The song Robbie sings is "Venus" by Sleeping At Last. Thank my friends who spent half an hour last night making song suggestions for a song that would work.
> 
> Fics in the fandom before this was written: 866

_There's something about the way that you always see the pretty view_

_Overlook the mud and mess, always lookin' effortless_

_And still you, still you want me_

_I got no innocence, faith ain't no privilege_

_I am a deck of cards, vice or a game of hearts_

_And still you, still you want me_

**-Imagine Dragons, _Next To Me_**

Jade honestly doesn’t get what attracts her to Robbie as a friend, on most days. He’s a nerd, he’s awkward, he has some really annoying opinions on what makes a good Broadway show, he prefers rom-coms to horror movies, and he's eternally optimistic about fucking _everything_.

And yet, here she is. Letting him take her out to his stupid art history museum after they finished up a shift at that shitty cafe they both work at. Laughing at his stupid jokes that aren’t really that funny except for the way that he tells them, with that toothy smile of his and that stupid laugh of his.

And, of course, calling him the night she finds out that Beck dumped her for stupid, stupid reasons. Told Jade that she was "too much," that she had anger management issues, that being "strong" wasn't synonymous with "screaming at everybody without cause."

So Robbie and Jade are drunk, now, curled up on her bed in her house. She’s had more shots of her mom’s shitty vodka than Robbie, but Robbie’s far more of a lightweight that Jade is so they're about equal.

“He’s a dick,” Robbie says, eyes wide and earnest from his position laying at the foot of her bed. She’s curled against her headboard, and from here he looks so vulnerable and, well, kinda soft. “A total jackass.”

Jade can’t help but laugh, despite the pit in her stomach that threatens to swallow her whole. “I’ve never heard you curse before.”

Robbie’s brow furrows as he stares at the ceiling, the alcohol loosening confusion from his face. “Sure you have,” he says, “I curse all the time.”

“Saying “janking” doesn’t count as cursing, you fucking nitwit,” Jade says.

Robbie frowns. "Really?"

She nearly laughs at the utter confusion on his face. "Yeah, fucking really," she answers, kind of enjoying the way his face is so open and confused.

Then the confusion disappears as Robbie turns to look at Jade. “He doesn’t deserve you, you know,” Robbie says, earnestness in his eyes that belies the slur in his voice. “I wasn’t joking- he’s an utter dickwad for what he did to you. Dumping you like that, for such a stupid reason. You're great. You work hard, and you have a pretty voice, and you've got a passion no one else I know has."

The words are a balm just as much as the alcohol is, and in more ways than just one. 

Though Robbie's scared of most things in the world- kindergarteners, non-Jewish holidays, Northridge girls, turnips, giant cupcakes, being separated from his puppet- he’s never been afraid of her. On the contrary, despite the fact that she’s constantly yelling at Robbie, he doesn’t seem to mind. He’s always been supportive, if a bit anxiety-ridden due to his general demeanor. And very few people are that. Very few people can be relied on to the extent that Robbie is, that he's so willing to help and support her that he showed up here at her house at midnight (after driving her home after their shared shift at the cafe just a couple of hours ago), got drunk with her, and keeps complimenting her- and Jade's not entirely sure why, on that last one.

She doesn't say thanks. She never does. But in this moment, she almost wants to, because no one's ever been this nice to her. No one's ever cared this much.

Jade takes another sip of the bottle of vodka, relishing the burn as it scorches past her throat. It hurts less than Beck dumping her did, but it feels nice. It helps distract her from these icky, almost nice thoughts she's having about Robbie.

Robbie sticks one long, shaky finger in the air. "Do you mind if I sleep on the end of your bed for a little while? I don't think I should drive home this drunk."

Jade arches an eyebrow. She guesses that this is one way to thank Robbie without having to actually _say_ thank you. "Yeah, you can stay the night," she says, and chucks one of the two pillows at Robbie's chest. He lets out a small _oomph_ as it hits.

"Thanks," he says, closing his eyes and moving the pillow to under his head, and she nearly laughs at the way his glasses crush against the pillow and squish at an awkward angle into his face.

But she's a bitch, not a dick, so she leans forward and taps his cheek. "You might want to get rid of those glasses before falling asleep."

He blinks at her before lifting his head from the pillow. He pulls off his glasses, blinking around blearily, and then reaches out to the window sill to set down his glasses. They're hanging off of the edge a little, so she reaches forward and taps them back into place a little. She falls back into bed, veins still buzzing a bit, to find Robbie already passed out curled up on the edge of her bed.

She snorts at the image before slipping under her covers and closing her eyes, angling her feet just enough so that she's not kicking her in her sleep. It would be a rather rude awakening for him to get bumped onto the floor during the night, and he _is_ her ride to school in the morning if she doesn't want to have to walk the mile to the bus stop. No need to piss him off, especially when he was nice enough to come to her house tonight.

Then Jade passes out into sleep.

-

School the next day is pretty shitty, Jade’s not gonna lie.

It doesn't start off that bad in the morning, she has to admit. Jade’s car broke down ages ago, and she’s been hopping rides with both Cat and Robbie for months now, so no one really looks at Jade and Robbie weird when they show up to school together after Jade has administered liberal doses of hangover cure to both of them.

But when it comes to actually interacting with people, well, her and Beck have a lot of the same friends, and though Cat, Andre, and Robbie seem to agree that Beck pulled a dick move dumping her like that, most of the rest of school seems to agree that Beck was right in breaking up with her, even if they don't know the why.

This first day, at least, Beck seems to understand that it’s not a good idea to hang out around Jade. Not when she’s wounded and likely to tear his head off if he so much as looks in her direction. So he heads over to his film student friends- the pretty hipster-types that are somehow popular despite their lack of desire to talk about anything that’s not pretentious as Wes Anderson films- while Jade spends the day with their shared friends.

And Cat, Andre, and Robbie aren't that bad. Tori's a bit judgmental, but once Jade yells at her a little bit she stops making comments in favor of Beck, instead just talking with Andre.

All in all, though, Jade's not really enjoying school. She has at least one class- Calc- without any of her friends, and it's a drag to sit through on a regular basis but even worse with everyone gossiping about her and Beck.

She groans as she settles back in her seat. Senioritis is bad enough, but _this_?

How many months until they all graduate, again? 

-

Of course, that all shifts when Robbie pulls her into the Blackbox a couple of days later.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Jade barks as he pulls her along, stopping her in front of the front row of seats.

"Listen," he says, hands fidgeting in front of him. "This won't make everything alright, I know, but I thought I could help you feel a little bit better. And so I, uh, made you this song."

Jade blinks. "What?" She asks, honestly shocked.

Robbie nods. "Yeah, just- just listen, alright? I really care about you. And you've been feeling like shit since the whole, you know, situation began, and so I just wrote you this song, okay?"

Jade purses her lips and sits down in her seat, heart in her throat and biting back sharp remarks as Robbie picks up his guitar from the table on the side of the room, slings it on, and steps up to the microphone.

Then he begins to sing, and Jade isn't going to cry. She isn't. She knows she won't. She didn't cry when her parents got divorced, when her mom promised that they would never have to deal with her father again.

But if there was something that could make her cry, she thinks it might be a song like this. A song beautiful and tender and about _her_.

_At first I thought you were a constellation._

_I made a map of your stars, then I had a revelation:_

_You’re as beautiful as endless,_

_You’re the universe I’m helpless in._

_An astronomer at my best w_ _hen I throw away the measurements. _

Jade swallows as she listens, as she watches Robbie playing. He's looking right at her, and she feels open and vulnerable in a way that itches at her skin but also doesn't make her want to scream. This vulnerability, him staring right at her and singing such a tender song- it doesn't make her uncomfortable, per se, but rather makes her feel pulled open at the seams. Like Robbie's staring right at her, looking at every nasty part of her, and still calling her beautiful. Still calling her the universe.

_And suddenly I see you._

_Suddenly I see you._

_I was a billion little pieces _ _'til you pulled me into focus._

_Astronomy in reverse, i_ _t was me who was discovered._

_I thought I’d never find you,_

_When suddenly I saw you._

The guitar chords level out as Robbie hits the final lyrics of the song, and Jade's heart feels so tender that it might burst with one false touch.

_Like a telescope, _ _I will pull you so close,_

_'til no space lies in between._

_Then suddenly I see you._

Robbie steps down from the stage. "How was that-?"

His voice is cut off when Jade leans forward and yanks him into a tight hug. She honestly can't remember the last time she hugged someone like this, full body contact, with them pulled tight to her. Probably before her parents' divorce, if she's being honest with herself. 

"Thank you," she mutters into the collar of his button-up, and it's the first time she's thanked anyone for anything in probably five years- since before her parents got divorced, most likely- and the words are stiff but they mean a lot. They have to.

Jade has never been one for weakness. So many people have used it against her, used it to break her over and over. But Robbie- well, she doesn't think Robbie ever would. Robbie with his stupid art museums and his stupid minimum wage job and his stupid support of her and his stupid smile- he wouldn't do that. Jade honestly can't think of anyone else she can trust like that.

"Only telling you the truth," Robbie says quietly, a mixture of surprise and determination in his voice as Jade pulls away from the affection and belief in her, drawing back into her normal caustic exterior.

"Now we've gotta get to work," Jade says, sliding Robbie a smirk- hopefully signalling the end of the moment- and he nods.

“Gotta make those sweet, sweet smackeroonies,” he says with a bright smile (and how could anyone be that bright and happy, Jade’s not sure), and fuck, she kinda wants to kiss that smile.

Robbie’s the exact opposite of every boy or girl she’s ever dated before. He’s not conventionally attractive, he’s not a jerk, he's not pretentious or stuck-up. He's genuine and kind and utterly unembarassed about his nerdy tendencies.

And yet- she wants to kiss him. To put her lips against his. To hold him close and have her hold her and run his fingers through her hair. To sing with him at one of Hollywood Arts’ million talent shows.

It’s an icky, sentimental feeling. With Beck, it was a pretty easy relationship, never too deep. She liked him, he liked her, they went on dates and made out and-

Jade winces. She doesn’t want to think about Beck, about him kissing that fucking Northridge girl he's dating now. About their ugly, nasty breakup, where she’d shouted at him for the first time not in teasing, or irritation, or passion, but in clear, cold fury and betrayal. 

So instead she just nods. "Let's get to the car."

Robbie sets down his guitar on the side of the stage, next to Rex- who he's barely operated in the past few weeks, since he started working at the cafe with her- and grabs his jacket and keys. "Time to take off to the chariot," he calls out, and she rolls her eyes, resisting the smile that's threatening to poke through.

"Let's get to that lovely minimum-wage job," Jade says. 

\- 

Auditions come up for the new musical a few weeks later. The leads are a female popstar looking to be true to herself who writes her own music and can sing like a dream, and a poor boy with a heart of gold and a drive to achieve his dreams of being a singer. 

Jade shoves a flyer into Robbie's hands at his locker. "You've gotta audition," she orders, and he gapes at her.

"What now?" He asks.

“You’d be good for this role,” she says matter-of-factly, because Robbie _ would _ be great as Charlie, the CinderFella character of _ Rags_, the musical they’re putting on. “And trust me, I wouldn’t lie to you about it just to be nice.”

Robbie shrugs. “Guess you’re right about that,” he agrees.

“So?” Jade pushes. “You gonna try out?”

“Guess I could try,” Robbie says, and something goes pinched in his expression. “I mean, we know the role’s gonna go to Beck, but it doesn’t hurt to practice.”

Jade’s face twists at the idea of Beck getting the role. Robbie is obviously not the first choice or the typical choice to play the part of Charlie. He's not your typical leading man material. No, that's obviously Beck, well evidenced by Beck’s long list of leading man roles in the past.

But Charlie Prince isn't your typical leading man. He's kind, and he's soft, and the driving point of his story is to help the girl he loves realize that she's worth more than the men in her life are telling her, that being herself is the most important thing of all. He's nothing but supportive and understanding, despite (or perhaps because of) his bad past.

And if Robbie doesn’t get the role- or at least a chance at it- Jade is about ready to riot.

“_And_,” Robbie adds, “I’ll only audition if you do, too.”

Jade snorts. “Of course I’m auditioning,” she says, though she has the pretty big suspicion that Tori will get the part, just like she’s gotten everything else that Jade’s wanted since she got into Hollywood Arts. “Gotta give Tori a run for her money.”

“Then it’s a deal,” Robbie says, sticking out a hand. Jade glances behind him into his locker to make sure that Rex isn’t hiding in there, therefore contaminating Robbie’s hand, before giving a curt nod and shaking his hand.

-

Jade steps up to the cast list for _Rags_ a week later, eyes peeled for one particular role. And she finds it, just like she'd thought- right under **CHARLIE PRINCE** is the name **ROBBIE SHAPIRO**, scrawled in Sikowitz's handwriting.

"You got the part," Jade says, turning to Robbie to give him a short congratulations (and a _good__ luck _for playing a romantic lead opposite Tori), but he's still staring at the paper behind her.

"Jade," he says, an almost unrestrained glee in his eyes. "Look who else got a part."

So she turns around to check, and under **KADEE WORTH, **the name listed is **JADE WEST**.

"Holy shit," Jade mutters, actually, genuinely shocked. The part would have been absolutely perfect for pretty Tori Vega, who's listed under one of the roles for Kadee's best friends, alongside Kat. Andre's listed as one of Charlie's stepbrothers- the nice one, makes sense- and Beck's playing Kadee's fake media boyfriend. Jade's name is the only true shocker on the list, as she in no way fits the character of Kadee. (Well, at least, not that she can see.)

"Mazel tov!" Robbie shouts, and she turns around to find him grinning proudly at her. "You got the part!"

Despite her own beliefs to the otherwise, Jade snorts and says: "Was there ever any doubt?"

"None at all," Robbie says in a tone of voice that says that to _him_, there was never any doubt- a feeling certainly not shared by many others.

(And it means a lot, Jade's gotta admit.)

-

It's obvious from the first day of rehearsal Robbie isn't entirely well-suited to the role, even if he shares a certain number of personality traits with Charlie. His voice is not angelic, nothing spectacular. It's perfectly decent, but there's nothing special about it. He has no special star quality that Charlie had in the original musical, no above average stage presence.

But the spirit he gives the character, the slightly awkward attitude and sheer earnestness he gives Charlie, combined with a pretty spectacular grasp on subtlety and nuance- well, Robbie certainly a genuine talent for acting. He pulls you into the character of Charlie, beyond just the base qualities of kindness and dreams and into something more real.

He genuinely makes you believe that Charlie is a real person, imbues the character with an almost realistic quality that makes him something beyond just the usual "Cinderella." Through small suggestions for line changes to facial expressions to workshopping scenes with Jade and, at times, Andre, he makes it so easy to believe in Charlie as something beyond just the male lead. He makes Charlie's tragic backstory feel like something more than a tragedy, something more human and raw and real. He makes Charlie someone worth caring about.

(And it's a side of Robbie that none of them have ever seen before. Jade has to wonder where he pulls something like that from, what part of him hurts like that.)

Jade, on the other hand- well, Jade has never been a soft girl. She lacks the warmth that the character of Kadee has, the natural optimism and idiotically happy smile that Tori carries most of the time. She doesn't know, exactly, why Sikowitz gave her this part. Her audition of Kadee was spot-on with the notes of the songs, but more bitchy than the original musical made the character- more like herself, to be honest. 

(If there's one part of the role she nails, though, it's that it's not hard to summon up a casual disgust and boredom for Beck's character as they act.)

Well, whatever the answer is, Jade's going full-force with her version of the character. It's definitely not the Tori-version of Kadee Worth, but it's Jade's, and Jade's is the version that Hollywood Arts is going to see, come opening night.

-

The third week of rehearsals- when Jade’s finally sinking into this role and making it her own- Robbie’s world blows up. And it is _anything _but pretty.

They parted after rehearsals to grab their bags and homework. Jade had ducked into the bathroom, and in the five minutes between that and meeting Robbie at the car, something's happened. She can tell by the way that Robbie's hands are clenched white-knuckled around the steering wheel when she gets in, his lips twisted into an angered grimace. 

“Tell me what the fuck is wrong,” Jade says, dropping her bag on the floor in front of her feet.

“I want to let my dad rot in hell,” Robbie says, and, well, _that's_ a change. Though he hasn't really mentioned his dad much in the past few weeks, she's never gotten the vibe that his relationship with his dad was anything too bad. After all, Robbie _does_ live with both parents, alternating weeks between their houses in the seven years since their divorce.

"Why?" she asks, and he launches into a _very _impassioned rant.

From what Jade can understand of said rant, for the past two years his dad’s been telling him that it’s his adult responsibility to get a job and pay for college- something that Robbie’s understood and agreed with (hence, the cafe job that Robbie and Jade both share). But then Robbie turned eighteen and his mother told him about the divorce contract that both she and his dad signed seven years ago, when they got divorced- a contract that stipulated that Robbie's mom and dad split college costs 50/50 between them after Robbie and his little brother Bradley's scholarships, which Robbie's earned a great deal of at the college he's set to go to. His mom had said that she hadn't wanted to tell him about it because she hadn't wanted to get between him and his dad, but that she couldn't bear the idea of Robbie paying for something he didn't have to.

And when Robbie had just asked his dad about his responsibility on the phone, his dad had tried to take advantage of Robbie and guilt him into paying his _ dad’s _ half of the bill by talking about how it would financially affect Robbie’s little siblings, who Jade's never met but that she knows that Robbie loves with a passion.

(And Jade knows, by her own experience, that the easiest way to get Robbie to do anything is to guilt him. He's a pushover to begin with, and it's the easiest way to get him to do anything you want. She only did it the once, but it made her feel so shitty that she's only ever yelled at him since, because she doesn't want to be the kind of person that her dad was.)

By the time that Robbie’s winding down from his long-winded tangent (because Robbie’s cycled through a lot of emotions, from anger to frustration to despair to betrayal, throughout this whole thing), Jade’s plenty angry for him, because none of this is Robbie's fault. It's his dad's fault for not being financially responsible, for deciding to have more kids after he got remarried instead of planning to save money for the contract that he signed, for trying to guilt Robbie into pulling his half of college finances.

“It’s just- I know that there are worse things in the world to worry about," Robbie finishes. "There are plenty of worse things that people I know and care about are going through. But this- this is supposed to be my dad, who wasn’t supposed to lie to me. Who wasn’t supposed to throw my trust back in my face and try to guilt me into paying his half of the tuition, especially after lying to me for two years about the fact that I'm the only who had to get multiple part-time jobs to pay for undergrad." 

“This is _ his _ fucking responsibility,” Jade spits. “Not yours. Not legally, not emotionally, not morally. He’s trying to manipulate you. He's an utter dick, Robbie-"

“I know, okay?” Robbie nearly shouts, “I know. I’ve thought about it over and over for the past few weeks. And he's the one who fucked up. Not me. It's _not my fucking_ fault- but." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Then, a lot quieter, and kind of broken: “I just- I just want to forget, okay? I don’t want to think about it. Because the moment I think about it, it becomes real. I have to think about the fact that either my dad read the document and he’s been lying to me for seven years, or that he didn’t read it and now that mom’s reminded him about it, he’s decided that he’d rather shove thousands of dollars in debt onto me rather than obey his legal responsibility. Also, the fact that if he refuses to pay the bill by August, my mom will be completely within her rights to sue him, which will hurt my little siblings and basically end my relationship with my dad. And I love my dad- he's spent eighteen years caring for me- but by Hashem, I just-" His voice breaks, cracks, shatters, as does his expression. He lets out a low sob, and Jade's usually the first person to avoid grief and tears and human vulnerability, but Robbie was there for her during the breakup. She should be here for him now, when his world is falling apart.

"Come over to my place," Jade offers, and he opens his eyes, taking a shuddering breath as he looks at her. Behind his glasses, Jade can see tears. She swallows. "You don't have to go straight home after you drop me off. Just...hang out at my house tonight, alright? Don't think about the world. Watch movies with me and eat junk food and just- just don't think about it, okay?"

Robbie takes a deep breath and wipes a tear away away from under his glasses. "What kind of movies?"

She sighs. "I'll let us watch one of your stupid rom-coms this time, if you want."

Robbie gives her a small, though pained smile. "How about _Clue_?"

It's not a horror movie, it's a murder comedy, but it _is_ one of Jade's favorite movies- and the one exception to Robbie's general rom-com favorites rule. "Sounds good to me," she says, though she knows that it'll probably take awhile before they can dive into the movie. There will probably be more icky feelings first.

But she finds herself willing to listen, because this is Robbie, who listened to her.

-

They get to Jade's house, and her mom just left for her shift at the hospital, so Jade invites Robbie up to her room.

This time Robbie’s head is curled into Jade’s lap, where _ she’s _ the one carding her fingers through his hair, which is certainly a change. She has definitely never been this tender with anyone, well, ever. But Robbie, eternally optimistic and self-assured in his own nerdy way, is falling apart in front of her.

And it's almost scary, in a way, that he's letting her see him that way, because though everyone always thinks of Robbie as weak, he's always been steady in a way that few people are. He's kind and excitable and happy, with the occasional rather dark joke, but never vulnerable like this.

"So," Jade says, "Guess you have a bit more in common with Charlie than even _I_ thought. Shitty dads seem to be a theme, looks like." Which reflects her life, too, but she's not bringing that up. For once in her life, she's letting the conversation focus on someone other than herself.

Robbie snorts into her skirt. "Looks like," he agrees, and he's trembling, just a little bit, shaking against her, and she doesn't begrudge him it. She doesn't tease. She understands shitty parents and divorces and wanting to tear apart the world because the people you care about have been fucked over by people refusing to be responsible.

(Jade can't count the number of times she's wanted to hunt down her father and fuck him up for what he put her and her mother through. She can remember the arguments, the screaming matches, the way that her father had manipulated and abused her mother. The fact that Kara West managed to pick herself up after the divorce, had managed to raise Jade and put herself through nursing school- well, Jade has more respect for her mother and more hatred for her father than maybe anyone else in the world.)

She understands, and that's what sucks. Because she understands how sometimes not even mothers can help, that there are some things you can't tell parents, no matter how supportive they are. There are some things that only people in the same situation as you can understand and empathize with, some comforts that can only be given from one fucked up kid to another.

And what's the only way that one fucked up teenager knows to comfort another fucked up teenager?

"So," Jade asks, "_Clue_?"

"By HaShem, yes," Robbie says, smiling that toothy little smile of his as he gets up from her lap to go grab for the DVD off of the small shelf in the corner of her room, and as Jade readjusts her skirt and her place on the bed, she can't help but watch him.

She and Robbie have a lot in common. Neither of them are the typical choice for leading man or woman- he's too scrawny, too much of a pushover, and she's too much of a bitch with a penchant for gothic clothing- and thus both of their chances in the entertainment industry are limited. They've both got shitty fathers- hers left and her mom, and his is emotionally manipulating him and ignoring his responsibilities. They both work at the same dead-end cafe, pulling minimum wage.

And they both care too much about each other, as she's swiftly having to admit to herself.

Fuck, she's getting in too deep. She's getting angry on his behalf. She's caring too much about the smile on Robbie's face. 

But, as he pushes in the DVD to her dvd player under her shitty old tv, she finds herself not caring too much about getting too attached. Not when Robbie is here for her and she's here for him and they both help each other out, bring out something in each other. He feels comfortable getting angry and upset with her like she's never seen him get with anyone else, and she's comfortable getting vulnerable with him. All in all, it's a balance that finds her more comfortable than not, with her feeling cared for in a way that she only occasionally gets when her mom's shifts coincide with her being awake.

Robbie sits back on the bed next to her, his back against her headboard, and he's still shaking just a little but he's smiling and so she's a bit less worried about him than earlier.

She just hopes that he can find the distraction he needs here as the movie goes on, as they fall into their favorite murder comedy and away from real-life problems. 

-

It’s when they hit dress rehearsals that Jade realizes that she’s well and truly fucked. Robbie on a regular basis is pretty easy to resist, what with his disturbing (and yet oddly adorable) penchant for wearing graphic tees and cardigans,but then he changes into his costume for the Majesty Records Ball scene- where Charlie performs (though masked) in front of Kadee for the first time- and it’s a silver suit complete with a brimmed hat that Robbie grins and tips in Jade’s direction before they start running through the scene. “Milady,” he says, all dork-like, and Jade doesn’t know why she wants to jump his bones so much right now but that _ is _ a feeling she’s experiencing, so she’s going to have to process _ that _ one.

Instead of responding in any sort of productive way, though, she just rolls her eyes. “You’re a dork,” she says, tone a lot more fond than she meant to reveal.

Robbie’s grin widens, somehow (and how can anyone in the world be that happy so much when their world has fallen apart). "Thanks," he says, completely sincere, and Jade doesn't think that she's ever seen Robbie not be that sincere about anything. "You look gorgeous."

Jade doesn't even glance down at the silver gown they put her in for this scene. It's simple and easy to change into, which will make the quick-changes easy, but it's nothing like anything she'd normally wear. It's simple and shimmery and smooth, unlike her dark black layers, black lace, combat boots, and metal hardware.

Instead, Jade just watches as Robbie's cheeks go bright red. "I mean, not that I don't think that you don't look gorgeous on a normal basis," Robbie starts to ramble, and to be completely honest, his awkwardness is kind of adorable. "You really do, I swear, it's just that, you know, this is just that this dress looks really nice, almost like Princess Leia-"

"Nah," Jade says, cutting him off. "It's okay." When Robbie's eyes go wide, she realizes that it's the first time she hasn't yelled at someone over that in probably a few years.

"Well, um," Robbie begins to say, probably leading into something equally awkward and dorky, and then Cat cuts him off.

"Robbie!" she shouts from across the backstage, "Lemme help you with your makeup!"

"Well, uh, gotta go!" Robbie says to Jade, cheeks bright red but expression relieved, and he jets off to Cat.

Andre walks up to Jade, already in his costume. "Hey, don't bite my head off," Andre starts, "But Robbie likes you."

"What the fuck are you on?" Jade immediately barks, because Andre's her friend, really, but the only person she's willing to be vulnerable and kind with is Robbie, and even then only sometimes.

Andre gives her a small smile. "Robbie _likes_ you, Jade. Has for awhile, ever since his crush on Cat faded last year."

Jade arches an eyebrow. "I terrified him last year. He screamed multiple times at me when I even came near him."

Andre shrugs. "Just calling it how I see it. He's always admired you, even if he has no idea how to express that. And since Beck broke up with you- well, I think he realized how he feels about you. Doesn't want to ruin your friendship or something like that, though."

Jade's not one to show weakness (unless it's in front of Robbie, who's rapidly becoming her _person_ in a way that no one ever has), so she doesn't swallow in uncertainty. She doesn't blink in disbelief at Andre's observation. Instead, she just narrows her eyes. "Well, whatever the fuck he feels, _he_ should be the one to tell me."

Andre grins, offering her a casual mock-salute. "Sure thing." Then he heads off, leaving her with the option to yell at his back or just to stew on her own.

And, well, she's got to go rehearse, so Andre gets a pass this time. Just this time, though.

\- 

The actual opening night goes off without a hitch. Robbie steals the show as much as a guy like Robbie can, capturing all the audience's sympathies for Charlie within a few minutes after the first opening number. Throughout the rest of the first act, from the revelation of Charlie's late mother's piano he's trying to buy back from the thriftshop to his horrible stepfather to the way he interacts with Kadee, Jade's character, Robbie captures everyone's hearts.

Then comes the finale of Act One, after the dance scene and Charlie singing in front of the Majesty Records Masquerade Ball for the first time, and then- then it's the scene where Charlie and Kadee kiss for the first time.

And, well, they'd practiced this scene in rehearsals, but never fully kissed yet. Tonight, it's just a gentle touch of the lips, nothing too crazy- they're in the middle of a scene for a high school musical, after all- but Jade can't help but soften, just a little, go a bit warm in this moment just like Kadee does when "Rags" kisses her for the first time in the movie. 

Then "Rags" rushes off, leaving Jade to stand at the top of the makeshift stairs for a moment before she leans down and picks up the CD "Rags" dropped. She holds it for just a second, staring at it like it's made of diamonds, before the curtains fall and the lights go down, signalling intermission.

This is the first time she's properly kissed Robbie before, and as her mind peels away "Kadee" as she steps down from the stairs, heading backstage to get changed as the set guys set up for the second act, the implications hit her just a little. She pushes them aside, though, focusing instead on prepping for the second act, where she has a few more numbers alongside the big emotional breakthrough. 

And so Jade tries to ignore the niggling feeling in the back of her brain bugging her about what it was like to actually kiss Robbie for the first time.

Jade isn't usually one for sappy moments, after all. She will always prefer a good horror movie to a rom-com for movie nights. She's a big fan of scissors and fake blood and death motifs. Even in her museum visits with Robbie- which they average about once every other week, at this point, she's always the one to pull Robbie over to the sections of the museum dedicated to death and tombs and sarcophagi.

But right here and now- well, she's feeling a bit more tender than normal. She's feeling a bit softer toward Robbie and the musical and therefore a bit gooey inside about this whole kiss thing.

God, what the fuck has happened to her since hanging out with Robbie outside of school? First car rides with him, then museum trips, and now she wants to kiss him, and not even in an acting context. She wants a relationship with him, wants more of their movie nights and museum trips and well, kissing certainly wouldn't hurt. (Neither would sex, but she _does_ want to build up to that, a bit.)

Jade nearly groans as she goes to change into the next costume. She's _gotta_ get her head back into Kadee's head, not her own, think about Kadee's mysterious singer and her friendship with Charlie and her frustration with her media boyfriend.

-

The lights fall on _Me and You Against The World_, the final musical number, and Robbie, Jade, Andre, and the freshmen playing back-up dancers run offstage so that when the lights rise, they can all enter the stage for the final bows.

Jade's never that nervous after performing, and the slight shake in her hands right now isn't from anxiety- it's from exhilaration. Even if her take on Kadee was more bitter, with more ambition and drive than the original version, she nailed the interpretation that she set out trying to portray. She was the leading lady for the first time since middle school, and she fucking nailed it.

And, as she looks at Robbie as he grins through the other actors running onto stage, she knows that Robbie nailed it too. Maybe the portrayal of Charlie wasn't the same kind that Beck would have made, but it really worked. Their two interpretations really balanced each other out onstage, and she really feels like their versions of Charlie and Kadee had a really organic relationship and ending.

Then Jade walks onstage second to last, and the audience roars louder than they have for anyone else so far. She bows, taking a few moments to wave (she knows that her mom is currently pulling a shift at the hospital, but she's coming tomorrow, and thus the only person in the audience is maybe Sikowitz, if that), and then heads over to the side as her and the rest of the cast parts to make room for the male lead.

Then the orchestra kicks in one last time, playing the backing melody to _Someday_, and Robbie heads out onstage. Jade finds herself clapping for him alongside the rest of the cast and the audience, watching as he blinks at the crowd, his cheeks flushing red (with awkwardness or adrenaline, she's not sure). They've been going to Hollywood Arts together since freshman year and as far as she can remember, he's never had this big a role before.

And he deserves the standing ovation as the crowd finishes rising, everyone cheering for him and his performance. The rest of the cast closes around him after a few moments of him waving, shock clear on his face, and she takes his hand on one side while Andre takes his on the other. Then they all bow together, and she gives Robbie's hand a small squeeze in reassurance. He squeezes back, and she's not entirely sure if it's in reflex or not.

Then the curtains fall and the cast all starts to peel off.

"You rocked it!" is the first thing that Robbie shouts at Jade as they all exit the stage together, not even giving her the opportunity to congratulate him in return. "You were fucking amazing, Jade, you rocked the role of Kadee."

"You weren't half-bad as Charlie," Jade says, despite the fact that Robbie was fucking fantastic, but Robbie beams at her anyway.

"Thanks," he says, and she rolls her eyes.

"Just telling the truth," she says, then glances around. "Let's go find your people, now. Which I hope doesn't include Rex."

"It hasn't really included Rex for a good month or so now," Robbie says, his post-performance glow barely shadowed by the mention of his former attached-by-the-hand creepster self-esteem-harming doll. "I think I left him in the theatre a couple of weeks ago, in the middle of rehearsals." Robbie shrugs. "Haven't used him since."

Good. The number of times Jade's wanted to strangle that stupid puppet for something it said about her, one of their friends, or even about Robbie himself are near incalculable. She's pretty sure that Robbie used to use that fucking puppet to process certain things- his parent's divorce, for one- in a way that seemed more healthy than just screaming about it. Personally, she hated it, but she can't exactly blame Robbie for his coping mechanism. She knows that most people hated her anger issues as much as she hated that puppet, after all.

Robbie and Jade step out of the door to backstage and are immediately accosted by Sikowitz, a few audience members, and another teacher or two, praising all of the aspects of their performances that Jade already noted, from her singing range and stage presence to Robbie's acting skills and character design.

After about ten minutes of talking to them, though, they all leave, with Sikowitz saying to be ready for Monday's class, where their improv will be somewhat based in ideas surrounding the musical. This leaves a chance for Robbie's mom and little brother- a fourteen-year-old who's almost Robbie's height, though with much straighter hair and no glasses- a chance to walk up to them.

"It's so nice to meet you, Jade," The former Mrs. Shapiro- now Ms. Goldstein, if Jade's not mistaken- says, offering out a hand to Jade.

As she's shaking Ms. Golstein's hand, though, Robbie's younger brother interrupts. "Robbie's been talking about you for months, now," Bradley says, and Jade arches an eyebrow at the cherry-red that Robbie's cheeks turn.

"I did _not_, you little twerp," Robbie protests, and Bradley smirks at Jade.

"Yeah, Robbie did. Said you were super talented and that he just _loves_ working with you."

Ms. Goldstein smiles indulgently at her sons. "Bradley, stop tattling on your brother. Robbie, you _have_ been talking a lot about Jade. And it's good that you talk about your friends that much."

(Yeah, Jade supposes that it's natural to talk that much about your friends. But from the way that Robbie's blushing, well- that spells out a completely different story, one that lines up with what Andre was telling her just a couple of days ago. A story in which Robbie has more than platonic feelings for her.)

"And do you two want to go out for dinner? I know you have school tomorrow, but-"

"Mom, you don't need to-" Robbie starts, hurrying to stop his mother from spending money like that- and god if Jade doesn't understand- but Ms. Goldstein just shakes her head.

"You just had your first leading role in a musical, sweetie, and you rocked it- and so did Jade. You both deserve a treat for that." Ms. Goldstein looks over at Jade. "Of course, if that's okay with you, Jade, as long as you don't have any plans."

Well, even if Jade might have a crush on Robbie, she can never pass up the opportunity to embarrass him. "Of course I'd like to come," Jade answers, ignoring Robbie's pout. "Robbie can even drive me, save on gas money that way."

Robbie gives her a half-hearted glare, but the eternally optimistic man with a heart of gold can't summon up anything stronger than that. "I hate you," he mutters, and she grins.

"I know you love me," she teases, easy as anything, and it takes a few seconds for her own words to sink in. She doesn't even blink, though, when she processes the word _love_, instead just staring at Robbie, almost challenging him to respond and point it out.

He doesn't, though, instead just grinning at her. "I'll drive you, Jade."

"You two just need to get changed out of your costumes, first," Robbie's mom reminds them.

"Jank, you're right, mom!" Robbie shouts, suddenly remembering the fact that he's wearing a leather jacket and black skinny jeans. Jade's pretty sure that she could actually pull off this look as her normal clothing- the black leather jacket, dark blue tank top, and black feathered skirt aren't that strange- but she _does_ want to get out of her stage makeup and these monstrous heels, and maybe into a pair of skinny jeans rather than this skirt. She _also _needs to grab her bag so that way she can do what little homework she has left tonight. (At this rate she probably won't go to sleep until two in the morning, but that's not too strange. Prep for college, right?)

"Meet you guys out here in seven minutes?" Robbie's mom suggests, and Jade nods, giving Ms. Goldstein a smile.

"Sounds good," she says, and it does.

-

A couple of nights later, after the closing night performance, Jade and Robbie both end up at the cast party(ish) at the local Italian restaurant. Everyone there is exhausted and drained from over a month of work but still extremely proud of how everything turned out. Dinner's being paid for by Cat's parents, stinking rich as they are, and therefore Jade feels no guilt in ordering something super expensive, unlike the pizza she split with Robbie and his family a few nights ago. Cat's mom is partner in a corporate law firm and her father a pretty high-up guy in the music industry- they're not like her mom and Robbie's mom, working long shifts to put food on the table. They can afford Jade grabbing fancy pasta and salad and garlic knots and tiramisu.

Robbie sits in the seat next to Jade at the table, just like he's taken to sitting next to her at lunch. Cat and Andre sit at the same table as them, with Tori and Trina, questionably, filling out the table. Jade actually finds herself enjoying dinner, laughing at her friends' antics and Robbie's awkwardness and talking about how the musical went and eating as much food as she can fit in her stomach.

And throughout it all, she watches Robbie. Robbie, who never should even entered her mind as a possible friend, much less a serious crush. Robbie, with his stupid smile and love of art museums and the song he wrote just for her and his fear of horror movies.

This isn’t how Cinderella stories are supposed to go, Jade knows. The girl with divorced parents and anger management issues who got dumped by the hottest guy in school isn’t supposed to get a crush on the nerdy boy with a strange attachment to his puppet. The girl with purple highlights in her hair who never quite got out of her goth phase is supposed to end up with the popular pretty boy, not the Jewish boy with a golden heart, the broken background, and not an ounce of charisma to his body. This story should be about a couple like Tori and Beck, all perfect and pretty and charming, not one like Jade and Robbie, with broken pasts and divorced parents and no way out of their families other than thousands of dollars in scholarships.

And yet (and goddamn has Jade’s life become a series of _ and yet_s lately) she still likes Robbie. And she thinks- at least, she's pretty sure- that he might like her back. And they work pretty well together, if she's willing to admit it to herself.

-

Next Wednesday, it's a night like any other. They're getting off work and Robbie's driving her home because she _still_ doesn't have a car (and she hasn't really gained the motivation to get one, in the past few months), and then they're stopping in front of her house.

"Well, goodnight!" Robbie says as he shifts the car into park, voice somehow still irritatingly perky after a full five hour shift at the cafe, an ability that she surely cannot attribute to divorced parents or tragic life circumstances so thus must attribute somehow to the nature rather than nurture- or, well, just Robbie being himself.

Jade pauses for a moment before exiting the car like usual. Instead she stops and looks at Robbie, who's leaning in towards her, just a little bit, and fuck it. They’ve kissed multiple times onstage over the course of last weekend. Sure, that was with costumes and songs and with _ Kadee-and-Charlie _ overlaid overtop of them, but that shouldn’t matter.

Kissing Robbie now, as themselves, in his car- it shouldn't be making her hesitate. Except there _is_ the fact that Robbie matters to her, as more than just a sexual or romantic interest, but as a friend. If they fuck this up now, then she could lose him as the absolute friend and support that's become an utter pillar in her life, and she doesn't know if she could handle that-

Wait a moment. She doesn't think that Robbie would do anything like that. Even if, under some strange circumstance, he doesn't like her back, he wouldn't hold this against her. He hasn't held a single thing against her yet, and she's given him plenty of ammo to do so.

So yeah, fuck it.

Jade leans in, tugs on his button-up (and god, does she have to talk to Robbie about how fucking attracted she is to button-ups sometime), and pulls him into a kiss. Robbie's clearly not that experienced, as his hands scrabble awkwardly around her arms and hair, unsure of what to do before they eventually settle near her shoulders, and he's not entirely sure what to do with his lips, but he responds eagerly, following the pace she sets.

Eventually, though, they part. "Holy cannoli," Robbie says, "That was janking amazing!"

Now, that has got to be the first time that anyone's ever said _holy cannoli _in response to her kissing, and Jade shouldn't find that attractive, but fuck, she does. What in the world has become of her, that she's making out with Robbie Shapiro over top of the center console of his old car? That she isn't feeling jealous over Beck and his stupid hair, but rather just thinking about how warm she feels inside when Robbie pulls her around an art museum and then buys her pretzels and mustard afterward?

But instead of answering that question, Jade just leans back in and kisses him again, pulling him in close. This time it's a little bit less awkward, though only marginally so, but Robbie's still as eager to reciprocate as the first time. 

"Wait a minute," Robbie says when they part again, "Do you _like _me?"

Jade is almost tempted to respond in a caustic way, to slap back at the sheer hope in Robbie's eyes, but even instinct can't make her do that to him. (He's had enough emotional manipulation in his life- she doesn't need to add to that.) "Yeah, I do," she answers. "Weird, isn't it?"

Robbie lets out a small, pleased noise. "I _really_ like you," he says, then frowns just a bit. "Does that sound desperate?" he asks, sounding genuinely curious, and she can't help but snort.

"I kissed _you _first, remember?" Jade asks, and he nods.

"Right, good point," he acknowledges, then leans in. "Can I kiss you again?"

Jade chuckles. "Now _that_ sounds desperate."

Robbie shrugs. "I've decided that I'm okay with that, if it means I get to kiss you again."

Jade smirks. "You _are_ desperate."

"You're really sexy when you're proving a point, but I _really_ kind of want you to kiss me." Robbie's gaze is almost firmly fixed on her lips at this point. "So, uh, kiss me, please?"

And Jade is all too happy to drop the teasing and oblige.

-

When Tori and Beck announce that they're a couple a month later, Jade can't really bring herself to care. She hasn't really been eating lunch with either of them for months now, mostly just eating with Robbie, Cat, and Andre. Tori's sometimes dropped by, but she's mostly been caught up in drama department meetings and extracurriculars.

So the fact that Tori's dating Jade's ex doesn't really bother her that much. Not when she sits next to Robbie at lunch, listening Cat ramble on about whatever strikes her brain at that particular moment in time and Andre discuss music techniques and general social shit with them. Robbie and her sometimes hold hands, sometimes not, and whatever's going on Jade generally has a good time- something she never could have predicted a few months ago.

(And, of course, she can't ignore some of the absolutely fantastic making out sessions she and Robbie have been having lately. Robbie had only ever kissed one person before her- a boyfriend of his from freshman year that he barely got to first base with- and he's been an eager student to her teaching him how to really go for it.)

She finds that she couldn't care less about Beck and Tori, right now. Maybe the two of them will stay together. Maybe they won't. Jade doesn't care, not anymore. Not when she has a pretty great (if dorky) boyfriend and her two friends who she's not sure how they became her friends.

All in all, her life is turning out pretty well. They're set to graduate next month, and Jade's been saving up a semi-decent amount for her first semester of college. Her scholarships will do her a decent job, but unlike Robbie's whole situation (which still hasn't been resolved, by the way, but his mom has sworn to make sure everything's okay and holding his dad to his sworn payment), Jade's gonna have to continue working part-time jobs through the summer and into college.

She's prepared for it, though. She and Robbie are actually going to college about half an hour away from each other- both of them to private liberal arts colleges about twenty minutes away from each other. He got the scholarships based on his stellar GPA and test scores, and she got them based on singing and theatre auditions and her pretty decent GPA.

And maybe they won't be together in college. Maybe they'll break up. Jade can't tell. But Jade's pretty sure she can trust Robbie not to break her heart, to stay her friend afterward and always be there for her, even if they don't work out (something she isn't planning on happening, but just in case). She knows that no matter what happens, she'll always have Robbie in her life.

Robbie leans over and presses a quick kiss to Jade's cheek. "I'm gonna go pick up a tamale from the food truck," he says, "You want some, milady?"

Jade doesn't know how Robbie's dorkiness is so attractive to her, even a month into their relationship, but it probably says something about her that she smiles at his "milady" instead of yelling at him for the stupidity of such a comment and nods in response to his question.

In response, Robbie tips an imaginary hat. "Your wish is my command, darling."

Yeah, Robbie still hasn't gotten ahold of the whole "pet name" situation, but since he's only ever been in one other relationship before this one (and exists on a steady diet of rom-coms, indie music, and Disney Channel Original Movies), she can't quite blame him for his overindulgence on pet names. And besides- as evidenced by the small smile on her lips- she doesn't quite mind them, that much. They're kind of adorable, in that same awkward, dorky way that the rest of his flirting and "wooing," as he's called it, is.

"I can't believe that two months ago you would have bitten his head off for that," Andre says with a small laugh, and Cat nods.

"Well, Robbie has glitter in his eyes for Jade, so I think it's a bit mutual, don't you think?" she asks Andre.

Jade flips them both off, but her usual attitude is a bit dampened by the fond smile still lingering at her lips. Andre winks at her, and she sticks up another middle finger at him that she only drops when Robbie returns back with two tamales a minute later, just in time for Andre to say, "Anyway, Prom's in two weeks. Who are you all planning on going with?"

Jade arches an eyebrow at him as Robbie hands her a tamale. "You're fucking with me, right?"

Andre raises his hands in protest of his innocence, but his grin shows that that was his attempt at a joke. "Well, I haven't seen any status updates on the Slap, so..."

Jade rolls her eyes and turns to Robbie. "Robbie Shapiro, dork extraordinaire," she says, pointing her still-wrapped tamale at him. "You wanna go to prom?"

"It would be my honor to go with the sexiest girl in school," Robbie says, and his blush is still there for the word "sexy" but Jade just grins.

"Then it's a date," she says. She glances to Cat. "You want to go shopping for dresses?" Jade's got her eye on a rather nice black number she saw at Goodwill the last time she went thrifting.

Cat squeals and leans forward to hug Jade, which Jade dodges. "No fucking hugs," she informs Cat, reminding her of long-standing rules for affection at school, and Robbie- the traitor- leans in and gives Jade a peck on the cheek.

"How about a kiss?" he asks, and she melts just a little inside at his lips.

"Only because it's you," she says, and Robbie grins proudly.

"An honor I take very seriously," he replies, and the best part about this all is that she knows that he actually does.

So she leans in, grabs his shirt collar, and pulls him into a kiss that has Andre letting out a whistle. She flips Andre off without letting go of Robbie. She's proven over the past few months that she's rather good at multitasking- working a part-time job, maintaining a 3.5 GPA, starring in the musical, thrifting with Cat, visiting art museums, and dating Robbie- and this is no exception.

(Jade West has always been a talented girl. It's only right that she's finally getting to show the world the talents that Robbie has always believed in.)

"Prom's gonna be really awesome!" Cat says to Andre, apparently already distracted from her and Robbie kissing. "I got Sinjin and the Barbershop Quartet guys to play-"

Jade breaks off from kissing Robbie to turn and glare at Cat. "You better get better entertainment than _Sinjin _to play Prom."

Cat's brow furrows. "Who would you suggest?" she asks, eyes wide, and Jade grins. She glances back at Robbie, who is looking her right in the eyes with a similar grin on his face.

"I think I've got the solution," Jade says, hoping that her black knee-length Goodwill dress will be up to performing- and that Robbie's up for a duet or two. "Andre, you good to play keyboard?"

"Always," Andre says, "Long as I get a solo or two."

Jade smirks, turning to him. "That can be arranged."

"Then I'm sold."

"Cat, looks like you've got entertainment for a good portion of the night," Jade says to Cat, who squeals, then turns and hugs Andre instead of Jade. Then Jade turns to Robbie. "Get ready to sing with me, dear boyfriend."

Robbie swallows but nods. "Always up to singing with you, milady."

"Dork," Jade says, voice dripping with fondness.

"Proudly _your_ dork," Robbie says, and yeah, Jade's far too happy to call this nerd her boyfriend.

_Well, you might be a bit confused_

_And you might be a little bit bruised_

_But baby how we spoon like no one else_

_So I will help you read those books_

_If you will soothe my worried looks_

_And we will put the lonesome on the shelf_

**-Ingrid Michaelson, You and I**

**Author's Note:**

> And later on, Robbie's roommate ends up being a guy named Freddie Benson who spends WAY too much time on Skype with his long-distance girlfriend Sam but that's a story for another day...
> 
> Hope you all liked this fic! I've been wanting to write a fic in this fandom for such a long time, and even after reading "use somebody" by halfempty last year (and thus falling in love with the pairing of Jade/Robbie), I couldn't find the inspiration. Finally did, though, and I hope it worked and that you all enjoyed. If you liked it, feel free to leave a comment- comments are a writer's lifeblood, after all!


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